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Pierre Boulez (26 March 1925 – 5 January 2016) was a French composer and conductor. He was one of the dominant figures of post-war contemporary classical music. As a composer, he played a leading role in the development of integral serialism in the 1950s, and the electronic transformation of instrumental music in real time from the 1970s. Boulez conducted many of the world's great orchestras, including the Vienna Philharmonic and the London Symphony Orchestra. In the 1970s, he was the music director of the New York Philharmonic and the chief conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra. He was particularly known for his performances of 20th-century music, including Debussy, Stravinsky and Schoenberg. Boulez's work in opera included the Jahrhundertring, a production of Wagner's Ring cycle for the centenary of the Bayreuth Festival. He also established several musical institutions, including the Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique / Musique and the Ensemble intercontemporain. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Ancient Egyptian stone vessels

... that ancient Egyptians crafted hundreds of thousands of stone vessels (examples pictured) before the workforce was redirected to build pyramids?
... that when the crime of mugging gained attention in the UK, one book argued that there was no crime as such?
... that in the essay "Toward European Unity" George Orwell presumed that one of the greatest obstacles to a federal Europe would be economic pressure by the United States?
... that Fadel al-Utol considers preserving Gaza's archaeological sites to be a peaceful act of resistance against Israel?
... that cyclist Mike Allen compared participating in the Olympics to Disneyland?
... that New York City's unbuilt River Walk development was delayed due to a $2 million study of striped bass?
... that a character from Gunbuster popularized an arm fold commonly seen in anime?
... that Marilyn Fisher Lundy developed one of Michigan's first accredited charter schools?
... that a journalist used vibe coding to create an app to suggest what to pack for lunch?

In the news

Kirsty Coventry

Zimbabwean Kirsty Coventry (pictured) is elected as the first female president of the International Olympic Committee and the first from an African country.
Anti-government protests break out across Turkey following the arrest of Istanbul mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu by the national police.
Somali president Hassan Sheikh Mohamud survives an attack on his convoy by al-Shabaab that kills at least 10 people.
Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip kill more than 500 people, ending the Gaza war ceasefire.
A nightclub fire in Kočani, North Macedonia, kills at least 59 people and injures more than 155 others.

On this day

March 26

Elbridge Gerry

1344 – Reconquista: The Muslim city of Algeciras surrendered after a 21-month siege and was incorporated into the Kingdom of Castile.
1651 – The Spanish ship San José ran aground onto coasts controlled by the indigenous Cunco people, who subsequently killed the crew.
1697 – The Safavid Empire began a four-year occupation of the Ottoman city of Basra on the Persian Gulf.
1812 – The Boston Gazette printed a cartoon coining the term "gerrymander", named after Governor Elbridge Gerry (pictured), who approved the legislation that created oddly shaped electoral districts.
1939 – Nationalist forces began their final offensive of the Spanish Civil War, at the end of which they controlled almost the entire country.
1999 – A jury began deliberations in the trial of Jack Kevorkian, an American practitioner of physician-assisted suicide who was charged with murder in the death of a terminally ill patient.

'Adud al-Dawla (d. 983)
Julie-Victoire Daubié (b. 1824)
Jörg Streli (b. 1940)
D. M. Thomas (d. 2023)

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Today's featured picture

The Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed on March 26, 2024, at 1:28 a.m. Eastern Time, in the Baltimore metropolitan area in the U.S. state of Maryland. The main spans and the three nearest northeast approach spans of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, spanning the Patapsco River, collapsed after MV Dali, a container ship, struck one of the bridge's piers. Six members of a maintenance crew working on the roadway were killed, and two more were rescued from the river. The collapse blocked most shipping to and from the Port of Baltimore for 11 weeks. Wes Moore, the governor of Maryland, called the event a "global crisis" that affected more than 8,000 jobs. The economic impact of the closure of the waterway was estimated at $15 million per day. This photograph, taken on the afternoon of March 26 by a member of the United States Army Corps of Engineers, shows the aftermath of the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse, with Dali's bow damaged by and lying under a section of the bridge's collapsed truss.

Photograph credit: David Adams

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